The 38th Annual Hunger Games
by Whiteflame13
Summary: Another year, another arena and 24 more innocent children thrown together to kill for the entertainment of the Capitol. But will district 7 have a returning victor in this, the 38th annual Hunger Games
1. Chapter 1

I swung the sharp iron axe with great speed and strength into the trunk of the huge oak tree smashing the blade into the wood splintering the bark across the hard ground. I swung again and again in a routine which I had picked up through the 6 years of work in this slowly disappearing forest of ancient Oak, Elm, Ash and Birch trees, one of the many forests that surrounded the tree reliant district seven. Not long after my first strike I quickly moved out of the way as the whole tree crashed to the ground with an almighty cracking of wood. I quickly checked that the pickup team behind me were picking the tree up, a small group of three 12 year of boys and two 14 year old girls equipped with a large truck with a hydraulic harness and chain belts driven by a peacekeeper, and quickly moved onto the next tree.

This was the daily grind, I was part of a large team of 15 woodcutters and 3 pickup teams which worked our way through a small area of the forest, this type of system occurred all around district seven. This however was post rebellion Panem and so all of this was done under a strict guard of an armed peacekeeper and the only form of a break we had was 20 minutes at noon to have a slice of bread and a quick drink of water, not much in the summer months where the sun mercilessly blazed down on us from 7 in the morning till 5 in the evening. Weeks were for work and weekends for school, a school which would never answer our questions about the past, never explain why we were truly like this and only taught us things that would make us more efficient workers.

I was 17 years old, I had short dark brown hair, light brown eyes and was just above average height, I had quickly become strong through my work but I was thin and malnourished, only just able to keep going through the day. I lived in the outskirts of the slums which made up all but the town centre of District Seven. I was different from most teenagers in our small slums neighbourhood in the fact that I lived alone in a small house which by local standards was big enough for a large family. It used to hold a family of four people, me, my younger brother John and both of my parents. This had all changed two years ago.

My father and mother worked together in a different area of the lumber woods from me and my brother had only just turned 8 and so hadn't started work yet. One day when we all went to work my father decided to take my brother, John, with him so that he could start to teach him about the work which he would soon be joining. When I got home the house was empty and quiet, so I went to the work post to which they were assigned to. The post was being manned, surprisingly, by one peacekeeper who was hurriedly working through a pile of papers. When I walked up to guard and asked about my parents and brother, he simply pointed out the window towards a large plume of black smoke which was billowing into the sky far in the distance. Nothing more, just a solitary point in the distance, no explanations, no condolences and I was alone.

I was able to get along from the very small amount which I earned at work, with the help of my friends and neighbours and the fact that I only had to provide for myself. This is how I had lived for the last two years, not much of a life but survivable except for the looming presence of the Hunger Games. An event where 24 children aged 12-18, 1 boy and 1 girl from each of the twelve districts are chosen through a reaping day, to fight each other to the last person standing in an arena which was rigged with a variety of different traps by the Gamemakers. This came around every year and had been happening for the last 37 years since the rebellion where the 13 districts rebelled against the Capitol, a war ending with the complete destruction of district 13 and even worse of a place for each of the remaining 12 districts. I had yet to be chosen but I had known 2 people who had gone into it, neither of them had come back alive.

At the end of the day's work our team slowly walked exhausted, back to the small wooden work post where we signed out and handed over all of our tools to yet more white uniformed and armed peacekeepers. From here I began to walk home using my usual route through town. This led me through the town centre, a large cobbled square lined with a number of different shops, owned by the better off of the district; I never bought anything from these shops as I never seemed to have the money for them. Along the north facing side of the square stood the Justice building, a huge imposing building made of cold grey stone, a marvel of architecture which held the main governmental and mayoral offices in the district; this is where the district was run from by the mayor and the head peacekeeper.

Today there was a number of people milling around the square looking in through the dusty windows of the dark shops, a few children were chasing each other around making the most of the brilliant sunshine. However I put this unusual influx of people down to tomorrow being the day of reaping for the 38th Hunger Games, people were enjoying themselves before the killing of 23 innocent children began once again.

From the town centre I continued through town until I reached the entrance to one of the many large fruit orchards which were fenced off with electrical fencing and guard posts at regular intervals, they were taking no chances with food smugglers. This was the other produce that came out of District 7, masses of fruits such as oranges, apples and a variety of other colourful foods I had never even seen before. However even though this was one of our main exports, or should I say tribute, to the Capitol fresh fruit was a rare delicacy to the citizens of District 7.

I walked up to the fence, making sure I didn't touch it or get particularly close to it, and looked over the huge expanse of large apple trees which seemingly went on forever. The only thing missing from this somewhat manafaturial production was the workforce, a good 20% of the population of District 7 worked in food produce yet the orchards were empty, unusual for this time of day.

"Ash, you know we finish an hour early today." I heard a familiar with a slight tone of hopelessness at my bad memory. I turned to see Chloe Dove standing a few feet behind me looking at me with her arms crossed, she had light brown eyes and long brown hair which had been made into a plait which fell down her back, she had a kind and caring face yet it was scarred slightly and a tiredness which was way before her age of 17, she was only just shorter than me but never liked to admit it. I had met her back in our first year of school and had become close friends then, however when my family died in the blaze she was the one person who truly helped me through it with my head held high, I had yet to repay her for everything she had given me. "Yet every year you still turn up."

"Hello to you to." I say sarcastically but with a smile as I walk over to her give swift kiss on the cheek and hug her. She was one of the few people that I completely trusted, in times like these most would do anything or betray anyone for a bit more money, a bit more food to eat or fuel to burn for heat during the long winter month. "And anyway, you know that this routine of me coming here to see you is embedded too deep in my mind for anything to change it."

"Yer and I swear one day one of the Peacekeepers is going to arrest you for it as well." She commented with a joking smile but with a true worry that was poorly masked behind the tone of her voice. "Come on then let's enjoy the rest of today before curfew is enforced." At this she took my hand and began to drag me slightly towards the town, I gave in to her pull and began to walk with her back into the town.

As we walked back into the town square the square was filled with exhausted and visibly malnourished people, old and young, all milling around looking into the dusty windowed shops to see if they could afford even the littlest products with the few coins which made up their whole month's income. Shops such as the baker's and the butcher's had large crowds of people in and outside of the shop, the majority unable to buy anything but wanting to smell the scent of somewhat fresh food once more. The only other shops were small clothes and fabric shops which had a small number of people around them, but none seemed to come out of the shops with any items due to the unaffordable prices to all but the richest in the town.

However the one thing that truly made the cobbled square a dark and somewhat feared place for most of the civilians of District 7 was the constant presence of 10 armoured peacekeepers, each equipped with black metal machine guns on a strap which was kept slung over their shoulders and a small pistol which was sheathed in a white leather holster. These peacekeepers patrolled the town square and the surrounding streets, showing little mercy to anyone breaking the law or causing trouble.

We, as with a lot of the people around us, moved from shop to shop looking longingly in through the windows at the number of things that were seemingly far beyond us. Both the butcher and baker had prices that were equal to my yearly wage for some of the smallest pieces of fresh food. The smaller clothes shops which sold random pieces of old and worn down clothing was more affordable, however most people wore handed down clothes which they had worn for most of their lives and were weary at spending their money on clothes. Next to the clothes shops was a small apothecary who sold different medicines made from herbs found in the many fields and forests of District 7, the prices were quite high but the general demand for the medicine outstripped its price by far.

The only other building which was in use as a shop, was a small and dusty book shop owned by one of my work team's parents. The shop was occupied by 4 large bookshelves which were placed in the middle of the room; these bookshelves held a number of old leather books with somewhat perished yellowed pages. All of the books held stories and legends written and told during the age of the old world, speaking of many exotic and unknown lands and creatures to the people of Panem.

On the other side of the rough wooden bookshelves and behind a flaking desk was the shopkeeper. Mrs Archer was a 40 year old woman with dark brown eyes, short blonde hair and was easily too thin to be healthy. She wore a simple light blue shirt, ripped slightly along the left arm and a pair of dirty brown trousers. She was generally a calm and level headed woman who would happily help people in any way which she could, however she had another side to her which only a few trustable people knew about.

Within District 7 any books that were going to be sold to the general public or used for educational purposes in the 3 district schools had to be extensively inspected and screened by the local peacekeepers. The official reason for this was "To make sure that all books would be suitable for all possible readers", however Mrs Archer knew different. Through her many years as a book shop owner she had found a pattern to the books that were let through and which books weren't. Any books which had any historical facts had been quickly rejected and only fictional books without much real world context had been let through.

She had therefore worked against the peacekeepers and had somehow been able to get hold of a number of factual books without the peacekeepers knowing. Once I had gained her trust she eventually showed me the books which described a time of all-out war between two sides, each side comprised of a number of nations from all across the world. They described a dictator nation, ruled by a cruel and empirical government; this dictator nation ruled its citizens with an iron fist and killed or jailed anyone who opposed their views and rulings. This image of a dictatorial state was scarily alike to the nation of Panem, ruled by power and kept in order by ignorance.

"As usual for Friday you two turn up not long after work." She commented in a rough voice as the two of us moved down the bookshelves.

"Apart from the food shops, this is the only interesting shop in the square, not overpriced as well." I reply as I scan the spines of the dusty books to see if there was anything that looked like it could be interesting.

"Won't be able to get any more books in for a long time so what you see now is going to be here for a while." She informed the two of us, knowing that we regularly came into the shop just to have a look at anything new. "So, how was work today for you two?" She asked out of routine and curiosity of the other workplaces within the district.

"Boring." Came the quick and simple answer from Chloe who had drawn a book from the shelf and was now leaning up against the heavy bookshelf reading. "Do you think that we're going to get treated much different because of the reaping tomorrow, apart for an hour off at the end it's the same." She continued slowly as she carefully closed the book and placed it back on the shelf.

"Honestly, I think that the woodcutters are made to do more before the games start up, trying to compensate for the work we miss because we have to watch pointless killing." I say to answer the question from my experience. Throughout the duration of the games, the whole thing has been broadcast live to the nation and for the people of District 7 viewing is mandatory, something that cannot be achieved while at work.

"That would explain why my son always comes home completely exhausted, even if he is only part of the pickup crew. I would have thought if they wanted the work done that they wouldn't make us watch the games for the 4 or so weeks that it can go on for some times." She openly voiced her thoughts on the matter, even if her work wasn't particularly affected by the games.

"Yes, but a lot of the laws and such set by the people up top never take us into consideration, they don't care about any of us, just want us to stay in line and work." Chloe voiced the opinion of a lot of people with annoyance in her voice.

"Not the place to be saying things like that Chloe." I comment quietly with a quick and subtle glance out the window where I could see a peacekeeper walking past the door of the shop. I closed the book I was looking at and gave up looking for anything more so I walked over to Chloe who seemed similarly defeated in her search.

"So is there anything you two have found?" Mrs Archer asked, both of us shook our heads. "Well I suppose, unless you want to talk a bit more, you better get going before the white coats start chucking people out of the square. And good luck for tomorrow"

"Good luck for your son as well." I say before we all say goodbyes and the two of us walked back outside through the creaking wooden door of the shop. Although the enforced curfew of half seven was still close to an hour away the square had seemed to have quickly emptied of people and now only small groups of quietly chatting people were walking around now.

Seeing that we didn't particularly want to go into any other shop, due to not having the need to or simply not having the money to do so, we began our walk back to the outskirts of the town where our houses were. We quickly walked past the silent plantation fields and moved through into the outer rim of the District where my small and somewhat derelict house was squeezed in a terrace of poorly built and maintained houses.

I opened the unlocked rotten wood door and with a second's hesitation I walked into the house with Chloe behind me. Chloe closed the door behind us with a slight slam, knocking out a small piece of the already falling apart wood in the door. The house was a small 2 room building, one which contained two small cloth beds on the ground while the other had a small unpolished oak table and a brick fireplace embedded into the wall.

The rooms were dusty, old and the rain had got to into the walls and through the roof panels, leaving a constant smell of dampness that was long beyond repair. The floors were made from quickly placed down concrete, which left a large number of bumps and cracks across the house floor. The fireplace contained the black residue and burns gathered over the many years of use, making it look like a black hole against the bare white plaster walls. The roof was long gone and most nights any rain that fell was able to get inside, worsening the condition of the already degraded building. The only light in the house came from the various small holes in the roof and the cracks in the wooden door.

I had lived in this house all of my life, but only after the death of my family did the house become this bad. It had become a memory of my family, a remnant of what had used to belong here, a memory which I was scared of and one I didn't wish to tamper with. And so it had quickly fallen into a state of disrepair which was fine with me, seeing as I was the only one who actually had a use for the house any more. When I became alone and an orphan at the age of 15 the peacekeepers tried to stick me in an orphanage and wanted to give the house to another family. However I fought against this and proved that I could look after myself sufficiently to stay out of that hellish orphan house, the peacekeepers weren't very happy with it but in the end they gave up trying and let me stay here.

We walked through what you could call the bedroom into the room which contained the blackened fire and subconsciously went into our usual routine. I moved over to the fireplace, built up some small, thin kindling sticks in the hearth which were previously stacked tightly against the white plaster wall, I then placed a small bit of ripped cloth at the bottom of the sticks and moved quickly to lighting it with a much worn and visibly blunted flint and steel. While I did this Chloe moved around behind me opening the closets behind the table to get to a couple of flower patterned ceramic cups, both chipped and scratched in many places, and a large dull metal flask which contained water which was left over from my morning drink. She deftly placed them onto the unpolished oak table and almost silently moved around the table to sit down next to me as I gradually fed the fire with more and more sticks.

For a couple more minutes we sat there in silence, me feeding the fire allowing it to slowly get bigger and bigger as each stick was added, while Chloe stared absentmindedly into the flickering fire, the only sounds being the faint crackling of the thin and dead wood. Now with the fire being big enough for it to sustain itself well enough I leaned back from it and looked over at Chloe who was still a bit out of it. However she quickly looked up to meet my stare with one filled with fear and doubt, two emotions which she rarely showed.

"This is our life now, isn't it?" she asked very quietly, however before I could give an answer to her solemn question she continued. "Working throughout the day to fulfil the never ending needs of that dammed Capitol. We're practically slaves to them and yet every year they still feel the need to throw 24 teenagers into an arena for their own sick entertainment and as punishment for a war we never even fought in." At that her eyes moved back to the flickering flames.

Realising that everything she said was true and that there was little point in trying to deny it. So instead, I moved over to her and smothered her in a large hug, letting her rest her head on my shoulder. However she was able to hold back the tears, which I could sense her being on the brink of. "Come on Chloe, things aren't so bad for us. We've both got jobs outside in the forests, nowhere near those grim factories, jobs that have been able to keep us alive these years." I missed out the fact that these jobs had also come very close to killing us on a number of occasions. "That and we have each other. Now come on, this is probably the best it can be for us and its likely to stay like this for a long time." I knew that what I had just said was most likely not going to hold true, but at this point in time cheering her up was my main priority.

Although, instead of cheering her up she grew more serious and moved her head from my shoulder to look up at me with a fearful look. "And what about the Reapings tomorrow, so far we haven't been alive to see district 7 win and 3 people we've known have been chosen. Now my name is in there 24 times and yours is in there 20 times because you still feel the need to take tessarae."

"Yes but that's 24 and 20 in how many thousands of names, think about it, what are the chances of either of us being chosen tomorrow. And I take the tessarae because it gives us more to actually live off of, with just another slip of paper in the many thousands that will never be taken out of those balls. Stop worrying so much, nothing bad is going to happen, only two more people who we may or may not know will be chosen and then we just need to get through watching it, just like every year ." I replied to her fears with a resolute tone.

At that she just gave me an exasperated look and a slight shake of her head. "You will never accept or even consider something bad will you? You chased peacekeepers around for nearly a week to find out what happened to your family and then you made sure that you kept the house. You're even denying the fact that there's a chance of one of us being chosen for the games, even if its 20 or 24 slips in however many thousands." She said before placing her head back on my shoulder.

"Do you really expect me to give the peacekeepers an easy job with me and I won't consider it because... well I don't know why to be honest, just got to stay positive about things, there's way too many things negative in this world that we have to deal with." I said after a few seconds of thinking. She was right; I do seem to be in the habit of fighting against change and things that would worsen life in this woodland district.

Chloe once again shook her head slightly at what I had said, but this time didn't comment on it, presumably content with ending the conversation there. As we had been speaking the light shining through the many cracks in the door and the small holes in the rotten wood roof had disappeared and had only left the house with the orange and golden light of dire, which was close to burning out with a lack of fresh wood to burn.

Noticing that the fire was lacking wood I loosened my grip on Chloe and moved to get up from our sitting position. Looking up from my shoulder and over at the flickering flames she understood what I was doing and so pushed herself over to the other side of the fire so that she wasn't particularly in the way, from there she raised her knees, wrapped her arms around them and went back to staring into the dying flames.

I moved over to the small wood pile, which really needed to be replenished after tonight, and began to feed the flames with small dry twigs which quickly caught alight and began to crackle in the heat. Once I was happy with that the fire would stay alive on its own for a little while I sat back and reached for both the my usual cup and the metal flask which was resting upon the table. I spun the lid off of the flask and poured out half a cup for myself, placed the cup on the table and reached for the other cup and poured out the rest of the flask, filling the cup to the top.

I slid the full cup along the rough table over to where Chloe was, sloshing a large amount of water over the rim of the cup and onto the table and floor. With mumbled thanks she took the cup from the table and started to slowly drink from it, I picked up my cup and downed it in two quick gulps before replacing it back on the table with a slight clatter.

The silence between us held for a number of long minutes as she slowly emptied her cup and I had started to prod the flames with a thicker stick which had a charred end from the many times I had used it in boredom to prod the flames and glowing ashes. By this point I could see faint rays of white moonlight coming down through the roof, night had come and it must have been far past the curfew hours for normal workers.

"Don't you think you should have been home by now, I mean it's well past curfew and aren't your parents going to wonder where you are this late. That and the fact that it's the eve of the Reapings so I would have thought that they would want to spend the night with you." I asked curiously assuming that her parents would be concerned from not hearing from her practically all day.

"HA!" She shouted rather loudly, making me jump a little, she then turned to face me before continuing. "My parents being worried is seriously the least of my concerns right now." Her voice had quickly turned cold at the subject. "The only reason they would actually be worried is because if I'm gone then they lose a good chunk of all the money that they get and without me they wouldn't get the oil and grain from the tesserae. They haven't cared about _me_ in a long time. Why do you think I'm with you so often?" She finished with a much quieter and softer tone.

"Really?" I asked in a somewhat stunned surprise. "I thought you and your parents got along pretty well. When I met them they seemed good enough people, even if they were a bit rough in their handling of matters." I had so far met her parents on three different occasions and on each of them they were visibly nice people although they weren't particularly discrete about anything they thought and were very open and blunt in what they would say.

"I really don't want to discuss this right now." She answered without any further explanation, even though she knew I was still curious for any details or reasoning. However despite my curiosity I didn't press the matter any further, knowing full well that Chloe was way too stubborn.

"Anyway as its past curfew I don't think walking home on my own would be such a good idea. As I don't particularly want to get shot by one of the so called peacekeepers." She ended in a very sarcastic and annoyed tone. Past curfew hours if you were caught outside by a peacekeeper you would be shot on sight, no questions asked, you would be shot at until they were certain you were dead.

"Yer, never really understood why they're called peacekeepers. When most of the time its them causing the trouble and killing and hurting people, half the time without much reason past pointless and outdated laws." I replied in with a slightly confused tone even though I knew it was just a stupid name from the Capitol to make them look more justified and ethical than just sending armed soldiers in.

"Well the Capitol is a mystery to us commoners isn't it." She commented rather indifferently, clearly showing that she didn't really care for what the Capitol thought of their actions. For us this was how it was and there was little way that we could change it. At that she looked down at her cup, gave a small shrug, and downed what was left of it in one swig before placing the cup back on the table. She then let out a yawn and stretched her arms out.

"Well I suppose we'd better get some sleep then, can't be tired for the big day tomorrow." I say realising that my body and brain was now catching up with myself after the long day of work and so I myself was starting to fall asleep in the gentle heat of the fire. So I got up to my feet, which took a few seconds as my legs had become stiff, and walked over to Chloe where I offered my hand.

"Yer, may as well go to bed, got nothing else to do." She replied before accepting my hand with a tight grip and making me pull up her whole weight off from the floor, which in the end took both of my arms to do so. Once she was up off of the floor she stretched out her legs which had similarly become stiff from sitting on the concrete floor for so long.

From there we made the very small walk into the next room containing two small mattresses on the floor which acted as beds. With nothing else to change into I walked over to the more worn down of the two mattresses and laid down, flat on my back looking up at the dark ceiling.

"Come on, move over a bit." I heard Chloe's voice from the foot of the mattress. I raised my head to see her sitting at the end seemingly not wanting to sleep on the other mattress for tonight. So I moved from the middle to the edge and moved onto my side, freeing up enough space for her to lie down comfortably.

Instead, once she lied down on the mattress she curled onto her side and rested her head on my chest with her free arm wrapped around my side. So in return I placed my hand over her bringing her slightly closer to me and I lowered my head so that it rested just above her own head. Knowing that at this point she was already half asleep and on the way to being completely asleep I closed my own eyes in an attempt to get as much sleep as possible before the annual Reapings tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

I_ ran through the dark and silent forest, I ran as fast as I physically could but the trees ahead seemed to fade away into the deep distance rather than get closer. Was I running to escape from something or was I running towards something of need? I didn't know, all I could do was keep running without stop. I had become out of breath but my body wasn't tired in the slightest, just a slight numbness stopping me from feeling the world in a clear way. Yet for all I tried my goal kept moving ever further away each time I got close, when suddenly a light appeared in the moving distance._

_The golden and orange light was a small ball of hope lighting my way to the end. But very quickly the ball of light began to grow and strengthen in brightness, it flickered and jumped from tree to tree, spreading the guiding light around the expansive forest, bathing it in a red glow. Obediently I followed the light with the expectation of finding the someone or something I had been running for. However as I turned my body towards it I was swiftly surrounded by the blazing light which stuck to each of the trees producing an unbearable heat whilst putting me in a slight daze._

_I looked around for a few confused seconds before realising what was happening. The forest wasn't being lit by a mystical light source, it was being burnt to the ground by the merciless flames that now surrounded me and mocked at my weakness. I stopped running. All hope and cause now lost to the blaze. I fell down to the ground, onto the blackened and warm earth, trying to avoid being caught in the cruel flames that rose through the once great trees like they were paper. I shut my eyes hard, trying to block out the heat, glow and the ever present crackling which threatened my existence._

_All of a sudden the echoing crackling had gone, the glow which penetrated through my eyelids dissipated into blackness, and the blistering heat simply vanished leaving me on the cold and hard ground, alone and lost. I cautiously opened my eyes to see that, indeed, the fire was gone and now the blackened trees and the scorched ground was the only hint to a fire ever ripping through the area. I pushed my heavy and stiff body from the ground and leaned on the closest tree and looked around at my remaining surroundings._

_Everything seemed to be the same as before, although the trees were black and petrified they were still standing and the sky above me was still pitch black, no sign of either the moon or the stars. Then I noticed something lying on the ground a few meters in front of me. I pushed myself off of the tree and curiously walked forward to inspect whatever it was, that wasn't here before hand, now on the ground. As I got closer my mind recognised it as being in the shape of a body, I stopped moving for a second in shock and fear. However I moved forward, grim curiosity overcoming whatever fear which had stopped me._

_The body easily belonged to a young child by the overall size of it, the body wore an ashen leather jacket and simple grey trousers. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary apart from an iron eagle, which seemed oddly familiar, printed on the back of the jacket. My body drew me closer and closer to the body even though my mind protested against every slight movement. I leant down to the side of the child and with both hands pushed the body onto its back._

_A cloud of ash rose as the heavy body slammed back down on the ground. The child's hands had been burnt down to the point where bones were visible, leaving a mess of red and black flesh which clung weakly to the charred bones. Further up the body the child's clothes had been ravaged by the fire, exposing patches of raw flesh which already protruded small maggots. The only part of the body which was somewhat recognisable as still being part of a human body was the head and face._

_I looked at the face, searching for any defining features. The flesh was stained black with a number of cuts and bruises scattered around, however somehow the child's eyes were still in one piece. I looked into the brown eyes for any sign of recognition or any remaining life in them. It took me a split second to realise who was at my feet, once I realised I jumped back from my dead brother and hurriedly moved over to a tree which I leaned on for support. As I stood at the tree huge loads of ash and dust started to come together from the ground and the bark of the trees to form a number of objects._

_Within seconds each the floating shapes had warped and morphed into 3 bodies, suspended mid air in front of me. Simultaneously the bodies raised their heads and looked at me with dead eyes. To my left was my Father, tall, muscular and with a visible scar running up his left cheek. To my right was my mother, tall, yet shorter than my father and with long yellow hair which was held back in a simple pony tail. And directly in front of me was my brother, no longer an innate body lying on the ground. However they were not as I remembered them, each of them had parts of their flesh burnt through and ash covered whatever had been missed by the deadly flames._

_I turned away from my family in utter terror at what had become of them, in an attempt to rid my mind of what I had seen. But as I turned, the tree was gone and a large weight fell limp onto my shoulder. It was yet another body which had been ravaged by the fire which I had hid away from. I was scared to who this body may belong to but once again my body acted against the reason of my mind and I pushed the body forward off of my shoulder in order to see who it was. I looked down to see Chloe, eyes dark and lifeless, Skin burnt red and black, singed hair clinging against her skin. No sign of life and all the proof of a painful and drawn out death across her whole body._

_My eyes shot straight open and within a split moment I was completely awake and breathing heavily. I pushed myself up into a sitting position with my right hand keeping me upright by pressing down against the ground and my left hand up against my head where I found it covered in a cold sweat. I then, out of fear, looked down at my side to check that Chloe was still beside me and that it was nothing but another nightmare. To my relief Chloe was still curled up next to me, completely oblivious to the world around her and unknowing of the nightmare I had just been through._

* * *

I slowly, not wanting to wake her, started to stroke her long and out of place hair, in order to calm myself and out of comfort. I had had a number of dreams like that before, each of them depicting my images of dead family, burnt and bloody. These sort of dreams came regularly, yet I couldn't get used to them, I couldn't bear to see the family which the blazing forest fire had brutally taken away from me. However the thing that terrified more me was the image of Chloe which was stuck in my mind.

I could hear birdsong from outside and the house was being gently lit by a low lying golden sun. It was still early in the morning, however the Reapings were only an hour or two away from taking place in District 7. Across Panem the 12 districts held Reapings one after the other, starting with district 1 and finishing with district 12, presumably so that the viewers in the Capitol could watch each Reaping, live, one after the other, for their grand convenience. For the districts this meant you either had to wake up at a stupidly early hour or you had the whole day to sit around and worry on who would be chosen. For District 7 the Reapings occurred at 9 O'clock in the morning, this meant that every working citizen would be awake and ready for the cameras.

On Reaping days all eligible teenagers, 12 to 18 year olds, were exempt from going to work until after the Reapings had been carried out. Instead, we were to gather in the town square at half past eight so that we could all be checked in and bundled together into rope pens depending on our ages, ready to walk up to the stage if called out of the balls. The square was always surrounded by at least 100 peacekeepers, the majority from the Capitol, in order to check us in using some kind of blood recognition device, to stop anyone from running away and to escort whoever is chosen into the Justice building and then to the train which would take them onto the Capitol.

To my side I noticed Chloe moving slightly and her body tensing up to something. I moved my hand away to see if she was waking up or if she was just moving in her sleep. A few moments later she shoved herself upwards into a sitting position screaming and like I had, with her eyes wide open and heavy breathing. I moved back in shock at this abrupt wakening. She then swung her head from side to side, looking at her surroundings and taking in where she actually was. She stopped swinging her head around and focused her eyes on me with a hard and questioning stare.

It took a few seconds, but she soon realised where she was and who she was looking at, once she realised her stare softened and became slightly fearful. She then slowly dragged herself across the bed and wrapped her arms around my neck and placed her head on my chest, shaking slightly for some reason. "You're still here, you're still here." She whispered in relief and joy.

I looked down at her, somewhat in surprise, and placed my own arms around her, bringing her closer to me. "Of course I'm here, I'm always going to be here for you. Where else on the world could I be that's not with you?" I replied out of impulse without any real need to think about what I way going to say. At that Chloe looked up at me with a smile and rested her head gently on my shoulder. We sat there for a while holding on to each other, both knowing that we would never willingly part from this spot should we have the choice. But the thing we both had on our minds was the one thing that prevented this from being a reality, the Capitol's Reapings awaited us in the town square.

Knowing that we couldn't stay here for much longer and that being here would only prolong the inevitable, so I reached up and pried Chloe's hands from my neck and carefully moved them down to her sides. She gave me a somewhat disapproving look but offered no real resistance, she also knew the importance of being on time for the Reapings. In previous years we had seen two children, 12 or 13 years old at maximum, run out from one of the side streets to get to the sign in desk, however they were the last two to arrive and by that point everyone else was waiting in the age pens. As the reached the desk a Peacekeeper took a sample of their blood, checked it and allowed them to pass through, but two other peacekeepers blocked their paths and smashed each of the children round the head with the butts of their metal guns, knocking them to the ground and then dragging them across the floor and throwing them in their pens without care. The Peacekeepers are supposedly there to keep the peace, seemingly how they gained their names, within the towns and to organise and control events such as this, however they caused the most trouble, taking out pointless anger and keeping people in line with fear rather than respect.

"I suppose we had better get going then, can't keep our dear Capitol waiting for too long can we." Chloe said in a sarcastic yet downhearted and depressed way. She steadily pushed herself from the floor, with a slight shake, and stretched out her arms with a large yawn. I followed her actions and got to my feet and wiping my eyes and taking a few deep breaths to try and wake myself up further.

"Want to bother looking fancy for today?" Chloe asked in a rather bored and lazy voice which clearly showed what she thought upon the matter.

I looked around the completely bare room and said, heavy with sarcasm and in an accent reminiscent of one owned by a Capitol citizen "Hmmm, good idea, such a wide choice we have here isn't it. So hard to decide what to wear, how to style it. Oooh and what will those cameras think of it, must be absolutely peeeeerrrrfect if everyone is going to see me." I just rolled my eyes with a disgusted sigh at how pathetic and shallow the people of the Capitol were when it came to what they looked like, especially when it came down to being on national camera.

Chloe just gave a short laugh and a shake of her head, "Yer, I suppose you're right, nothing much to change into and even if we did we have nothing to wash ourselves up with unless we want to go get however much water from the well."

"And we both know that that's just going to take forever to do." I said from experience of going out in the morning for water, expecting to be back within 10 or 20 minutes, in the end it took me a good hour and a half to get the water and to drag it all the way back home. "May as well get moving to the square, not as if there's anything here we could eat or drink, so breakfast is out the window fairly quickly." I said in slight disappointment that there was no real food in the house.

At that Chloe nodded her head and comically span on her heels, swinging her long plait around so that it nearly hit me in the face, and walked the few metres to the door which she easily pulled open without even needing to turn the handle. I swiftly followed her through the house that was literally falling apart and breaking bit by bit around us and out into the sunlight and grass covered dirt floors. Before moving on I carefully closed the door with a weak click of whatever surviving parts of the lock and walked backwards to look at the house. It was small, dark and a complete wreck for something that I had lived in for this long, yet even so it held some value to me and should I be drawn out of the Reaping balls, I'm not likely to ever see this house again.

I turned away from the house, with a finality which I had held during the morning of each Reaping, and reached out for Chloe's hand. She similarly held out her hand, making our hands meet halfway where we gripped onto them tightly and pulled the other closer. From the house we made our way through a large area of horrifically small and ruined housing and at least one teenager departed from nearly every one of the houses to join the sorrowful march to the town square. Out of all the teenagers on their way to the reaping, only a small number seemed to be in some form of clean clothing and even less looked as if they had been able to wash and clean off their dirty skin.

The walk took a few minutes, slowed down slightly by the number of people moving around, but by the time we had reached the town square, the 12 different pens were half full of fearful and anxious children. Along the outside of the square there was a wall of unmoving, white armoured peacekeepers with guns held at the ready, blocking off every alley and road, making sure that everyone came through the same road and that no-one could escape, the usual for today. Above the wall of white was a small army of camera crews planted atop of buildings, with their equipment placed on makeshift platforms, covering every possible angle that the audience may need to see.

From the wide road we walked towards a row of large wooden tables, manned by peacekeepers wielding small electrical devices that were to take our blood, this blood was identified and then placed in a logbook under our names and official information about us. We went to the 6th table and joined the small line of 17 year olds who were also here for their 5th Reapings. The check ins only took a couple of seconds so within a minute we were at the front and being signed in ourselves, the Peacekeeper grabbed our hands and drew blood from one finger before letting us pass.

After the check in we silently walked over to our pens, 17 year olds were the second furthest from the imposing stone Justice Building, boys were on the left while girls were on the right. I gave a quick squeeze on Chloe's hand before letting go and walking over to the pen where I stood in line next to another 17 year old whom I didn't know. Chloe did similar, however she began to quietly talk with the person standing next to her, she was probably a friend from her work station, however I was unaware to who she was. We stood here for close to half an hour as more and more teenagers poured into the square, gradually filling up the pens, and even though they were covered large areas they soon became a tight squeeze and peacekeepers forced people to move as physically close to free up space.

When it seemed as if no one else was still to arrive and the sun was rising higher in the sky, the doors of the Justice Building were opened by two Peacekeepers and a number of people came out through the doors. The mayor, his wife, District 7's previous victor and a person who was clearly from the capitol. The Capitol attendant walked up to a standing microphone which stood at the forefront of the stage, while the other three stayed to the back of the stage and sat down in three chairs to spectate the proceedings at hand.

The Capitol attendant gave the microphone a quick tap to check that it was on, creating a loud boom that echoed slightly around the square. "Welcome, everyone, to the 38th Annual Reapings for the sleepy district of woodsmen and craftsmen. Today we shall once again see who the male and female participants from the many children of District Seven. But first we have a little video for you all to watch, to remind us of why this pageant of bravery and skill was conceived 38 years ago." She spoke in a somewhat high pitched and accented voice, she then pointed, with her gloved left hand, over to a large screen which was held up by scaffolding.

The screen abruptly lit up with what seemed to be a huge dust cloud rising in the air, glowing a fiery red while the floor below seemed to be covered in fire and the falling debris from whatever had caused such a thing. This was a video showed every year to inform the younger children about the events of the civil war that destroyed District 13 and led to the creation of the Games. The video went through how the 13 districts betrayed the all loving and caring Capitol and started a large scale revolution which led to the death of thousands and thousands of people, both from the Capitol and the Districts. It spoke of how the Capitol managed to suppress the rebels and put an end to the cold and heartless civil war that had torn the nation and led to the complete destruction of District 13, however the Capitol thought it best to keep these deaths and horrors of war fresh in our minds through the means of having what would eventually be called the Hunger Games. This was said to keep the districts from rebelling again as the terror and destruction that the last war had caused would still be prevalent in their minds.

By the time the video had finished you could that only half the people were paying attention through the bored and unimpressed looks on their faces and the way that some of the older and bolder ones had faked going to sleep. Undeterred by this the Capitol attendant carried on with her script. "Now for the thing we've all been eagerly awaiting, the Annual Reaping. As tradition dictates, Ladies first." She walked over to a glass ball, held on a pedestal to the left of her, filled to the brim with paper slips containing the names of all the possible Female tributes, and dipped her hand all the way in. She swirled her hand around and pulled out a solitary white slip which she held tightly in her fingers.

She moved back towards the microphone and opened the white slip of paper to read the name within, a sudden fear flowed through me and a slight shiver ran through my spine, that slip of paper could hold literally any name, that included Chloe and under no circumstances could I even imagine the possibility of losing her to such a thing. She looked at the slip for a few seconds and I looked over at Chloe, who's eyes seemed completely focused on the slip about to be read out.

"Rose Hill!" The name was not one that I recognised and for that I gave a brief sigh of relief and a large weight of fear moved off of my shoulders. I looked over to Chloe with a smile and to see her relief at not being picked. What I saw was completely different, the girl she had been talking to a minute ago was grabbing onto her shoulders and shaking her head violently while Chloe was trying to talk to her to try and calm her down slightly, but the fact that shock and anguish in her expression didn't seem to help matters.

After a few seconds Chloe seemingly gave up with trying to reason with her and grabbed hold of her shoulders and went to pushing her into the open, her face wrought with pain at what she was doing. It didn't take much for the girl to be moved into the path down the centre, but when she did she seemed completely out of her depth and moved her head from side to side, looking for support, all she was met by was two peacekeepers who moved forward with the intent of dragging her forward if they needed to. Seeing the peacekeepers she calmed down slightly, but still shaking, and slowly walked up to the stage where she ascended the small stairs and stood next to the Capitol Attendant with tears flowing down her face.

The Capitol Attendant made an approving nod and moved on with the Reapings. "Well then, now for the male tribute." She said in a bubbly voice. She once again moved to the brimming glass balls, this time the one on the right, and dipped her hand into the names. After a few seconds of moving her hand around she nodded slightly and drew out a paper slip. She walked back and opened the slip of paper, read the name for a few seconds and moved on to announce it.

"Ashley Redgrove!"

The sound of my name smashed into my chest like a brick wall, complete shock overcame my senses, disorienting me to the world around me which was slowly starting to blur away. My balance began to fail and my mind was starting to go dark, I had been chosen out of the hundreds of possible people, I had been chosen to be the tribute for District 7. Remembering that I was on camera and that peacekeepers were starting to move towards me, I took a deep breath, regaining some of my composure and thoughts and walked out into the path and up to the stage. The people I passed all have expressions of relief across their faces of not being chosen and that no one close to them had been pulled out either, but I refused to look over to where Chloe stood, I couldn't bare it.

I mounted the stage and stood on the other side of the Attendant and looked at my fellow tribute, She was visibly shorter than me with medium length brown hair which fell just past her shoulders, she had vivid green eyes, which were still leaking tears, and from sight I could tell that she wasn't built for anything that involved too much physical exertion. She was my tribute partner, the person I would have to fight alongside or against to survive the arena.

"Well shake hands then." The attendant said through the microphone even though it was directed at us. We did as she said and cautiously shook hands without much conviction, the attendant then patted us on the shoulders, indicating for us to walk through the Justice Building's doors. Again we followed as she instructed and solemnly walked into the dark building and the doors slammed shut behind us, cutting us off from what our lives had been before this day. All that was ahead was the Capitol and then the Arena.


End file.
